U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ADMINISTRATION
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON CONSTRUCTION
SAFETY AND HEALTH
Thursday, July 28, 2011
8:00 a.m.
U.S. Department of Labor
Room N-3437 A/B/C
Francis Perkins Building
200 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C.
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PARTICIPANTS:
Frank L. Migliaccio, Jr., Chairman
Ben Bare
Gary L. Batykefer
Kevin R. Cannon
Letitia K. Davis
Matt Gillen
Eric Harbin
Steven D. Hawkins
William D. Hering
Walter A. Jones
Thomas Marrero
Sarah Shortall
Laurie A. Shadrick
Eric J. (Pete) Stafford
Charles Stribling
Michael J. Thibodeaux
Daniel D. Zarletti
PRESENTERS:
Jim Maddux
David Michaels
Bill Perry
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C O N T E N T S
FULL COMMITTEE AGENDA – July 28, 2011
PAGE
Welcome – ACCSH Chair 4
DOC/Regulatory Update – Directorate of
Construction 11
Assistant Secretary Remarks – Office of
Assistant Secretary 74
Diversity, Women in Construction, Multilingual Issues/Backing Operations Reports – ACCSH Chair/Work
Group Co-Chairs 125
Update from DCSP – Directorate of Cooperative
and State Programs 164
Update from the Chief of Staff – Office of the
Assistant Secretary 186
Green Jobs/Construction Health Hazards/I2P2 Group
Reports – ACCSH Chair/Work Group Co-Chairs 215
Reinforced Concrete/Prevention thru Design Group
Reports – ACCSH Chair/Work Group Co-Chairs 220
Public Comment – ACCSH Chair/Members of the Public 235
Chair Remarks/ACCSH Admin. Planning/Recess –
ACCSH Chair 240
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P R O C E E D I N G S
CHAIRMAN MIGLIACCIO: I would like to call the meeting to order.
I would like to welcome everybody here this morning. I’ve got a few housekeeping, opening remarks to make.
In case of a fire drill, we’ll all go out. And we did have a fire drill at the last meeting if you recall. Out, and out that side of the building. We’ll all meet out there.
Shelter in place is in this room. Restrooms are located on either side of this, men’s and women’s, on either side of these rooms here.
Please turn off all your cell phones, or at least put them on mute.
And for the new members, when we actually -- when you speak, if you ask to speak, raise your hand, state your name and who you represent, so the recorders there know who’s speaking when they make up the transcript. Then when they tell us they no longer have to do it because we don’t have the name tags in front of us we might stop them, we might be doing that all day.
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All right. As we begin we’ll start with self- introductions. We’ll start to my left.
MS. SHORTALL: Good morning. My name is Sarah Shortall. I’m ACCSH counsel.
MR. HAWKINS: Good morning. My name is Steve Hawkins. I’m with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, State Plan Representative.
MR. HERING: My name is Bill Hering. I’m a new member here on the ACCSH and I’m a safety and health manager at S.M. Electric and also represent the Association of Union Constructors as well, employer representative.
CHAIRMAN MIGLIACCIO: Tom.
MR. MARRERO: Tom Marrero with Zenith Systems, new ACCSH member, the NECA representative, employee rep.
MS. SHADRICK: Hi, Laurie Shadrick, United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, a new ACCSH member and an employee rep.
MR. BATYKEFER: Gary Batykefer, Sheet Metal Workers International, employee rep, new ACCSH member.
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MR. STAFFORD: Pete Stafford representing the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, new member, employee rep.
MR. THIBODEAUX: Mike Thibodeaux, employer rep, NAHB.
MR. ZARLETTI: Dan Zarletti with Road Safe Traffic Systems, an ACCSH member, employer representative.
MR. STRIBLING: Good morning. My name is Chuck Stribling and I’m with the Kentucky Labor Cabinet. I’m a new ACCSH member representing state government.
MS. DAVIS: I’m Tish Davis. I’m with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. I’m a new member and I’m a public representative.
MR. JONES: Hi. Walter Jones, Labor and Safety Fund, employee rep.
MR. GILLEN: I’m Matt Gillen, returning ACCSH member, as the NIOSH rep.
MR. HARBIN: Eric Harbin with the OSHA Directorate of Construction. I’m the alternate designated federal official.
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MR. BARE: Ben Bare. I’m with DOC, Directorate of Construction, and I’m the designated federal official.
CHAIRMAN MIGLIACCIO: Thank you.
We’ll start with the back. State your name and who you represent please.
My name is Wayne Creasap. I’m the Director of Safety and Health with the Association of Union Constructors, Arlington, Virginia. This is my daughter, Ashley, who wanted to see a little bit of the proceedings this morning.
MS. HERING: Lynn Foley Hering, S.M. Electric Matrix, EH&HS representative, and Bill Hering’s wife.
MR. BRENT: Good morning. I’m Graham Brent, National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators.
MR. WALTON: I’m Bruce Walton from Occupational, Safety and Health Reporter, BNA.
MR. KENNEDY: I’m George Kennedy, vice president of safety for NECA.
MR. HEAD: Don Head, senior safety manager for the Washington Division of Balfour Beatty Construction.
MR. COATES: John Coates, International Staple, Mail and Tool Association.
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MR. AYOUB: Mohammed Ayoub, and director of construction.
MR. ELLIS: Nigel Ellis, president of L.S. Fall Safety Solutions, Wilmington, Delaware.
MR. PAYNE: Michael Payne, OSHA, Directorate of Construction, Office of Construction Services.
MR. BRANCH: Garvin Branch, Directorate of Construction, standards writer.
MR. HUBNER: Jerry Hubner, Office of Construction Services, DOC.
MR. PERRY: Bill Perry, deputy director in the Directorate of Standards and Guidance at OSHA.
MR. GLUCKSMAN: Hi. Dan Glucksman, International Safety Equipment Association.
MR. DOUGHERTY: Fran Dougherty, Office of Construction Services, DOC.
MR. McKENZIE: Dean McKenzie, Office of Construction Services, DOC.
MS. BEATTIES: Eileen Beatties, CPWR, the Center for Construction and Training and Research.
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MR. RUSSELL: Emmitt Russell with the International Union of Operating Engineers and former ACCSH member.
MR. HIGHDORN: Dave Highdorn, American Society of Safety Engineers.
MR. SCHNEIDER: Scott Schneider, with Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America, and a former ACCSH member.
MS. BOR: Vickie Bor with the law firm of Sherman, Dunn, Cohen, Leifer & Yellig, here for the building trades.
MR. RYAN: Jay Ryan, Plasters and Masons International Union.
MR. MADDOX: Jim Maddox, Directorate of Construction.
MR. COLE: Chris Cole, inside OSHA.
MR. BOLON: Paul Bolon, Directorate of Construction.
CHAIRMAN MIGLIACCIO: Have we missed anybody? Oh, here’s someone in the back.
AUDIENCE: Insurance services office.
CHAIRMAN MIGLIACCIO: Okay, thank you.
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Welcome. My name is Frank Migliaccio and I’m with the Iron Worker’s International and the chair of the group. I’ll be retired as of today.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN MIGLIACCIO: On the agenda, first up we’ll have -- the Directorate of Construction will give a regulatory update.
Then the Office of the Assistant Secretary will come in with some remarks. We’ll have a break.
Then we’ll have the work group chairs from the Green Jobs Construction Hazards and Health Hazards. I2P2 groups will report. We’ll break for lunch.
We’ll have the Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs, update from the chief of staff. We’ll take an afternoon break.
We have Reinforcing Concrete, Prevention through Design Workgroups, Diversity, Women in Construction, Multilingual Issues, Backing Operations.
We have public comments and then we’ll have our finishing up.
Also in the back of the room, I’ll make this announcement several times, in the back of the room there’s a comment, sign up sheet. If anybody would like to speak this afternoon please sign up for it and we’ll bring you in.
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MS. SHORTALL: Mr. Chair, as we get ready for the first presentation I would like to enter the agenda for today’s ACCSH meeting as Exhibit 1.
CHAIRMAN MIGLIACCIO: So done.
First up will be the Directorate of Construction’s regulatory update.
Jim.
MR. MADDUX: Good morning.
CHAIRMAN MIGLIACCIO: Good morning.
MR. MADDUX: I’m very pleased to get a chance to talk to the committee this morning in my new role. This is my first ACCSH meeting, and as ironic as it might seem Frank’s last. So it’s a little odd. But that’s the way things work out.
So I just wanted to talk a little bit today about what’s going on in the Directorate of Construction. Bill Perry has been kind of enough to join me so that we can give you an update also of the various regulatory projects that are going on in the Directorate of Standards and Guidance.
I’m Jim Maddux, the director of OSHA’s Directorate of Construction.
So a little overview. We’re going to talk about some standards issues, a couple of enforcement issues, and some guidance work that we’re doing.
Before we do that I just wanted to kind of put up a short slide on the Directorate of Construction. These are three offices. The office of Construction Standards and Guidance is led by Paul Bolon, who recently joined us, and I believe is going to be a huge asset to the directorate. He has many, many years of standards experience and I think that will go extremely well.
The Office of Construction Services is led by Eric Harbin, who I think you all know, who also helps to administer this committee and does a lot of the work of making this show run properly.
And then the Office of Engineering Services is Mohammed Ayoub, who introduced himself a few moments ago. His office does a lot of investigative support for our field units. He’s got a group of engineers that go out and they investigate structural collapses and things of that sort, where we have a need for advanced engineering support in our field offices.
So on the standards side we have two things that are in the pre-rule stage, and we have work groups that are going to be reporting out on each of these issues.
One of these is on backing operations or back over accidents. This is a very large problem, both in construction and in general industry. People are backing vehicles. They have a poor view to the rear and bad things happen.
There is sort of an interesting aside. There’s also a rulemaking that is going on with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration on this issue for over the road vehicles. They’ve already proposed their rule and taken public comment.
Basically the NITSO rule as proposed would require some sort of back over prevention technology on all vehicles 10,000 gross -- 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight or less.
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What that means for us is that every pickup truck and van on a construction site would have back over prevention, either cameras, or radar, or, you know, however it is that they work it out in their final rule, which I think will be a big plus for the safety of the industry. You know, those are very common vehicles.
What we’re looking at is what about the construction specific types of vehicles. There are a lot -- there’s a lot of vehicle traffic on construction sites. What can we do to reduce the back over accidents that are occurring in construction?
And interestingly enough this RFI will also be asking about back over prevention in general industry. In many situations the Directorate of Standards and Guidance ahs done rulemakings that effect both general industry and construction. This is an opportunity for the Directorate of Construction to do the same thing, the hazards are really much the same, and investigate whether or not there are additional back over prevention activities that are needed in general industry.
Second item is reinforcing and post tension steel construction, rebar. Concrete of course is one of the most common construction materials in the world, and almost all of it has rebar in it. And so there are a lot of problems with this safety-wise, making sure that the form work is fully supported, making sure that there are actually anchor points for people to tie off on when they have to go aloft, rebar that’s sticking up that can create impalement hazards.
The final rules. We’re working on a confined space rule due to come out this fall. The work on that is going extremely well.
As I think most of you know, this is a rule that was proposed before the Crane Standard was proposed. It was basically put on the back burner while cranes went through. Cranes was given a very high priority in the agency, rightfully so, and so confined spaces was set aside.
We basically had one staff person that was working on that and about four other assignments. Thank goodness he was able to make a tremendous amount of progress on this rule. So now that cranes has published we’ve assembled a larger team around confined spaces and we’re moving on that.
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Cranes and derricks and underground construction and demolition. The Cranes Standard, as I think we all know, the Construction Standards in various parts point to the Crane Standard. There are a lot of the standards that have crane work associated with the kind of work that they do.
Two of them when we proposed were missed, underground construction and demolition. So what we did at the final rule, since we hadn’t provided notice to these sectors that we were -- you know, proper notice, we decided to retain the old crane rule.
And it’s in the standards right now as subpart DD, that applies just to these two industries. So we would like to do a small rulemaking to make sure that we have one Crane Standard for the whole construction industry. It doesn’t make any sense to have separate requirements for different types of construction.